Socal2warm, did you taste an Ichang papeda leaf? Does it have strong fragrance or not? How was it compared to a normal lemon leaf and to a kaffir leaf?
Yes I did. It's not as harsh as an orange leaf, much more mild. It strongly reminds me of the leaves of citron, kind of a clear clean very light lemony aroma.
It does have just a little bit of bitterness, but is mostly lacking in flavor.
It's not as good as Kaffir lime leaves.
Both the leaves of regular lemon and Yuzu have sort of a bit of harsh petitgrain smell/flavor like regular citrus. Citron, Kaffir lime, and Ichang papeda leaves do not have this petitgrain-like harshness.
According to your experience on ichang papeda, it must be a useless variety then.
I don't think "useless" would an appropriate description, but definitely inferior to other available varieties.
I don't think a citrus variety that offers insipid leaves will produce fragrant fruits.
The leaves are not entirely insipid, but mostly that way. As I stated, there's a very faint light lemony citron aroma.
There is also a "deepness" to the smell of Ichang papeda leaves that it shares in common with Yuzu, but it lacks the "spiciness" of Yuzu.
I just wonder if there existed a lost variety of ichangensis (believed to be yuzu ancestor) then why people got rid of such an excellent variety. I assumed that variety of ichangensis must offer very strong fragrant fruits, even more fragrant than nowaday yuzu.
You are going way off-topic.
Most likely people grew it in that part of ancient China because that was the only "lemon" they were able to grow.
In those times people had to grow most of what they used locally. Trade with distant regions was more difficult and expensive, impractical to transport fresh fruits over long distances.
They apparently did have some cultivars of Ichang papeda with slightly better fruit quality, but I don't think they were that much better than the wild type.